40 On the Condition, and Prospects 



occasion of riot and assassination, and had better not be distributed, 

 or at least not without an equivalent in labour. Mr Wickham says, 

 that blankets seldom remain long in their possession, and considers 

 that a lonnr robe or shirt of blue cotton cloth would be more suitable. 



o 



This garment would be more decent, and cost but a trifle. Count 

 Strzelecki suggests the justice and humanity of supplying the wants 

 of the Aborigines by a weekly simultaneous issue of rations of bread 

 and meat. 



Legislation. — The present state of the criminal law with regard 

 to the Aborigines is somewhat anomalous and oppressive. In the 

 first place they are declared subjects of the British Crown, — an honour 

 conferred without either their knowledge or concurrence, and which 

 " it is verily believed they have never yet. been able to comprehend." 

 Again, they are accountable to British laws for offences not only 

 against the colonists, but also for those committed among themselves. 

 They are at the same time legally disqualified from giving evidence 

 in a court of justice ; a circumstance which, in Mr Robinson's opinion, 

 has tended to accelerate the destruction of the Aborigines among the 

 whites. Mr Thomas urges the necessity for some special law adapted 

 to their case. Mr Powlett considers that native evidence, when 

 strongly corroborated, might be permitted to go to a jury, to be re- 

 ceived for what it might be thought worth. 



Count Strzelecki reflects upon the anomalous nature of the whole 

 policy pursued by the government towards the Aborigines. He con- 

 siders they should have been placed more directly under the public 

 authorities, have been supplied with food, and have been declared a 

 conquered race, to render their actual position intelligible to them- 

 selves. 



Mr Parker recommends some stringent enactments to prevent the 

 prostitution of the native women by the labouring population. He 

 is convinced, from minute inquiry on the subject, that this is the 

 most frequent cause of Aboriginal outrages. 



At Swan River, an island is appointed exclusively for Aboriginal 

 criminals ; and according to the reports of the Rotnest establishment, 

 the best results have been realised.* 



Suitable Agents. — Mr Dredge strongly contends that the Christian 

 missionary is the only qualified party to civilise the Aborigines. 

 Suitable agents should be supplied by the church, a term he would 

 by no means use in a sectarian or exclusive sense. 



* In consequence of incessant mutual hostility between the Aborigines and 

 the colonists of Van Diemen's Land, the entire body of the former were hunted 

 out and removed, in the year 1835, to Flinder's Island, in Bass's Straits, where 

 the miserable remnant still resides. They numbered 210 on their first arrival, 

 but in 1842, when Count Strzelecki visited the island, they were reduced to 

 54. There had been only 14 children born during eight years.— {Strzelecki, 

 pj). 352-5.; 



